The cause...in a word....CELIBACY!
Wrong!
But the truth is they were never CELIBRAT. CELIBACY didn't make these men want to pray on little boys.
So, if I'm celibate, I'm at risk of groping young boys?
Teachers are preying on their students because teachers are required to be celibate.
Politicians are preying on their pages because politicians are required to be celibate.
Bosses are preying on their secretaries because bosses are required to be celibate.
etc...
Now let's see the logical argument for this.
Yes if those darn school teachers didn't have vows of celibacy there wouldn't be so much teacher/child molestation....
Which is why married men don't sexually abuse young girls and boys, right?
Secondly, while horrific, the rate of sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests is about the same as the rate of sexual abuse among Protestant ministers and public school teachers.
Finally, Jesus and St. Paul recommend celibacy "for the kingdom of heaven," for those who can accept it. See post #41.
Yeah, those Catholics should learn something from the fact that schoolteachers and protestant ministers and Anglican priests never molest kids.
Oh, wait...
Your post...in a word...IDIOCY!
Really?
Was Haggard, the homosexual protestant minister who just fell from grace, celibate?
You spelled "HOMOSEXUALITY" wrong.
BTW, I once met Ted Sturgeon. He lived in an old house in the hills behind Dodger Stadium.
In other words, adult men who are attracted to teenage boys would no longer be attracted to teenage boys if they were encouraged to marry adult women?
What an imbecilic statement.
I don't think so. There will always be men who cannot live up to the demands of the celibate life, but if they have serious preparation, it can be done. Unfortunately, in the late 60's, seminaries began to tell the young men that they wouldn't have to worry about living a celibate life because the Church was SURELY going to change her rules about priests being able to be married. So they no longer prepared the young men for a life of chastity and ordained them on false pretenses.
From what I've seen, it's not celibacy that's the problem with many priests, it's loneliness.
Celibacy is the cause of pedophilia,...?
Whew, sure am glad I got married!
Duh!
No the problem wasn't celibacy, it was PINOs (priests in name only) NOT being celibate - DUH!
(Later pingout unless you get to it first, wag!)
Actually, the cause in a word ... SODOMITES.
Secondary cause is many of these sodomites have been promoted to Bishop and Cardinal offering protection and continuance of this problem.
"The cause...in a word....CELIBACY!"
I think my response to your post is: Yes and no.
I believe that the demands of a totally celibate priesthood is a contributing factor, though not a direct cause.
I think that the uni-sexual, totally celibate peer-environment can contribute to conditions that fail in the challenges of celibacy; challenges and failures that are not just of the "homosexual" variety.
I think the Catholic Church must search for some prime conditions that contribute to the "sexual failures" in the priesthood in general, and when it does it will learn some lessons that apply to all such failures and not just the "homosexual" variety.
I find it interesting that, in a completely opposite fashion from the historically-late celibacy restriction in Catholicism, many Jewish conventions require that one who wihses to become a Rabbi and who studies to become a Rabbi must first be married before they are allowed to practice as a Rabbi. Single persons cannot be Rabbis in traditional Jewish conventions.
My alzheimers-riddled memory also seems to recall some reference (somewhere, unconfirmed) that many or most of Yeshua's 12 diciples as well as the apostles known to Paul were married, not celibate.
It is also my recollection that the prime-cause behind the rule that required celibacy was that prior to that rule many priests and bishops were passing-on their positions (and control of the related property) to their male heirs, at the expense of real merit of those most qualified.
In my musings I wonder if, possibly, the celibacy rule was one of those proverbial "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" decisions, in which the attempt to correct an organizational corruption helped create an environment that contributed to a moral corruption.